On track for the green shift

Oslo is growing more rapidly than any other European capital. In order for this growth to be sustainable and for the city to continue to be a good home to everyone who lives here, we need to ensure that it is easy to make environmentally friendly choices every day.

Oslo is already well ahead of other big cities when it comes to climate and environmental policies and this is in no small part thanks to our excellent public transport system. For a long period of time one of the goals with the highest priority has been for: all traffic growth in Oslo to be managed using public transport, bicycles and walking.

And things are heading in the right direction. Since 2007, public transport in Oslo has grown by 34 percent and 47 percent in Akershus, the number of toll booth crossings decreased by 7 percent from 2007 to 2014 and Oslo now has the same proportion of environmentally friendly transport as Copenhagen. For this positive trend to continue it is important that we continue to develop public transport networks. This includes realising the metro to Fornebu and Ahus, build a new metro tunnel below the city centre and buying new trams. This will dramatically increase capacity, contribute to improved air quality and ensure that the people of Oslo can move around the city faster.

Oslo is already well ahead of other big cities when it comes to climate and environmental policies and this is in no small part thanks to our excellent public transport system.

There is another reason to invest in public transport in Oslo. As part of the Paris agreement, Norway has undertaken to implement extensive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And to reach our goal, the transport sector has a special role as this is where a large proportion of the reductions need to take place. Some of the reductions must be ensured by choosing to walk or cycle or drive zero-emission cars. Perhaps most importantly however, those in Oslo and in other cities, need to have the best possible public transport in order to ensure that it becomes the natural choice to opt for the bus, tram or metro when going to work or school.

For me, the green shift is about two things. Firstly, it is about disconnecting economic growth from growing emissions. But it is also about ensuring that environmentally friendly choices always pay off. It must be worthwhile to choose green options, it must pay off to choose the tram over the car. Why use a car when the public transport options are both cheaper and faster? Oslo Vognselskap also plays an important part here. When the quality of the carriages in the Oslo traffic is good and delays are minimal, the threshold for choosing to take the tram or metro will decrease. My vision is for that threshold to be as low as practically possible and Vogn-selskapet therefore has a completely central role in the green shift in Oslo.

Nikolai Astrup (born 12 June 1978) is the party leader of Oslo Høyre (Conservative Party) and chairman of the Norwegian parliament's Transport and CommunicationCommittee. He was previously the deputy chairman of the Energy and Environment Committee. Astrup studied at the London School Of Economics and Political Science.